The search for authenticity is a theme in American culture. Whether authenticity is about seeking a “universal” truth, a bonafide artifact or a genuine experience – it is the Holy Grail of American life and literature that we are all chasing in one form or another.
But this quest in literature is dwindling because competing technologies are elbowing out the culture of books and reading – that is – unless you own a Kindle, eReader, Nook, iPad or a similar digital reading device.
I don’t own a “digital reading device” – even that terminology sounds wrong because I read what are called “books” on printed pages. Now, don’t get me wrong, people should read in any format they’re comfortable with because books are a struggling medium. For me, I prefer books in print because there are too many things that get lost in the digital translation; namely, the culture of books, which is exactly what this blog is trying to avenge.
And that fight is one that the novelist and poet Sherman Alexie believes in, too.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report Dec. 1, 2009, Alexie claims that the digitization of books is deteriorating the literary world for not just authors, but communities as well.
“The celebration of books inside each community is gone, the localized appreciation of books is gone,” Alexie said. “It amazes me that people who want to eat locally [and] live locally never think about buying locally [and] never think about the local value of a book.”
While he makes a valid argument, I find it hard to agree that the celebration of books is completely gone. It isn’t – at least in Fort Collins because of the support of the Be Local movement and booksellers like Old Firehouse Books, Reader’s Cove and the Matter Bookstore.
Along with booksellers, book publishers, writers, readers, professors and community members in Fort Collins are also reviving the “almost loss” of our book culture by taking the time to read books in print, to support local authors and to believe in the culture of books – which we need in order to thrive.
According to Goethe, and I agree, “The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”
We cannot ignore digitization, but what we can do is work with it by blogging about the news, events and material of our CSU and Fort Collins book culture because that culture is here, alive and waiting for you to seek the authenticity in your life through literature.
Tags: fort collins literature, matter bookstore, old firehouse books, reader's cove
